Orlando-area lawmakers, using the Pulse nightclub terror attack as a call to action, have filed legislation to ban some semi-automatic firearms and their magazines to Florida.

Sponsored in the state Senate by Sen. Linda Stewart and in the House by Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, both Democrats, the measure would ban the sale or transfer of certain classes of firearms based on their cosmetic features while mandating such guns currently in circulation be registered.

Smith, noted for being the first openly LGBT Latino elected to the Florida House, said the state needed no more tragedies like the Pulse shooting which left 49 dead at the Orlando nightclub last June.

“Assault weapons are the gold standard for mass murder. They are weapons of war, designed for war and have no place on our streets or in civilian hands,” said Smith at a press conference Thursday. “We all have the right to defend ourselves and our families with a firearm, but nobody needs military-style assault weapons to do it.”

The legislation, SB-254/HB-167, would add a definition to Florida law for “assault weapons,” listing all AR and AK series firearms by name as well as another 70 types ranging from Hi-Point and M-1 Carbines to some variants of Chiappa .22 rifles and Barrett .50 calibers.

Moving past the enumerated guns, the 16-page bill would classify a wide range of firearms with cosmetic features such as a telescoping or folding stock, bayonet mount or barrel shroud, as an assault weapon. Shotguns capable of holding more than five rounds in a fixed magazine would likewise earn the classification as would pistols weighing more than 50 ounces.

Those selling or transferring such firearms would face up to two years in prison as violations would be a third-degree felony. Simple possession of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine — one capable of holding 10 or more cartridges under the proposed law — would earn a year in prison.

Should the measure pass into law, Floridians who already legally own affected firearms or magazines could keep them, providing they obtain a certificate of possession.

The proposal is backed by the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, an offshoot of the state’s League of Women Voters Gun Safety Committee, who promised to bring such legislation last fall.

“We are no longer going to allow the NRA to dictate gun laws in Florida,” said Patti Brigham, co-chair of the Coalition.

“Florida cannot wait nor do we have to wait for our federal government to take action. We can and should follow the lead of seven other states that already have in effect what we are proposing today,” Brigham said.

The state’s powerful gun rights champion, Marion Hammer, executive director of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida and a former National Rifle Association president, told Guns.com the newfound drive to bring a weapon ban to the Sunshine State is just a rebranding of a bad idea that has failed in the past.

“This bill is like a ‘bad penny’ that keeps turning up,” said Hammer. “It’s useless, a waste of time, won’t do anybody any good, and can’t be justified. When are they going to learn that gun bans and gun control don’t work?”

Hammer said she had seen versions of the same bill pop up repeatedly over the years.

“I first saw this bill in the 1990s. It was a bad bill then and it’s still a bad bill,” said Hammer.

The legislation is awaiting committee assignment, though it faces unlikely passage.

Republicans hold easy majorities in both chambers and Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who endorsed Donald Trump for president, has a history of supporting pro-gun initiatives.

Florida can pass all of the gun laws they want . It won’t stop a criminal from driving from another state with such a gun and doing the same thing . All politicians are doing is blowing our tax money on fear . In Florida it’s just as dangerous to be in the ocean because a shark might kill you . And Florida might start putting some of their drivers off of the road . More people die in car crashes in Florida than by guns . I have had several wrecks in Florida do to Florida drivers thinking about gun laws instead of driving !

Mike in Illinois

Let’s DARE them to pass the most comprehensive ban they can possibly come up with! Let us NOT stand in their way, lets us be open and honest, saying that we ENCOURAGE them to place int he bill ALL their wonderland ideas, every one of them. Then, let us have the DEBATE, point by point (no not the ongoing pathetic gun controle talking point debate but the REAL debate, STILL daring them to load their bill up with all their goodies.

We should then DARE its passage, full passage, with no more than a written opposition filed by all those who simply abstain from the vote (so it will ALL pass). Send it to the governor and DARE em to sign it. The SPLIT SECOND it is enjoined and in effect, file a myriad of lawsuits in each and every district hammering each and every point of there Christmas Morning Law- of course in civil court. Likewise, do the same in criminal court (federal court of course as that is the code all this gun control offends straightforwardly.

The litany of suits alone would force the judiciary to act, quite possibly dragging SCOTUS into a original jurisdiction situation in attempt to stop the AVALANCHE. And when that happens, current precedent slaps it all down, every word of it, once and for all. From the dirext assault on a enumerated right, to known infringements, to known abridgements, to conspiracy to violate the rights of the people, to judgements against INDIVIDUAL actors (lawmakers included) to huge judgements by juries hands, and a national uprising in the que – their precious Christmas Morning law would get the biggest bully beat down EVAH. And it would deflate this pathetic political football more than a BRADY ball. Yeah, I went there, sorry. Good though huh? LOL. Regardless of that, it is past time to admit what this is – it is a CONSPIRACY to violate the rights of the people, the Constitution of these united States! Indeed, this crap is treason and we should walk it right up to that line, sending the message that if these fools do not STOP this once and for all, that is the next step we will take.

The question is – at what point will that national gun rights “advocacy” groups stand up, step up and swing for the fences rather than keep on with their smokey back room deals where rights are negotiated away little by little so that they can keep the money rolling in? I am not seeing anything in their precious bill that hasn’t already been addressed – and when courts have to face things already addressed and addressed again, they TIRE of that quickly and the decisions become more and more terse. Caetano was quite terse for that reason, heck even McDonald was as well (in pointing out that they were essentially trying to reargue the very things Heller put to rest directly!)

It really is time we fight to win, for us to fight STRATEGICALLY. This is what daring them to load up their precious with all their little goodies is all about, strategic thinking. Now is the time, as the argument that SCOTUS might do this or that or by the time it gets ther SCOTUS might turn leftward……yeah, all those arguments are gone now. Seriously folks, this really is a gift to US! All we have to do is stop being SCARED of it and take the fight to them, strategically.

Killermed78

I was with you until the court part 😄. I think blaiten civil disobedience is the way, but you may have a point. Getting them to put all the dumb legistration on the table all at once. Then deem it all unconstitutional! It could work.

Mike in Illinois

I like to refer to their wet dream legislation as a “target rich environment”.
When the NRA “helps” them with their legislation, the only thing that is served is to make it harder to challenge and get struck down. It is far better to see them pass their favorite garbage all on their own and then counterstrike via the judiciary. The legislative prong really has to be abandoned altogether because it hurts our cause and only aids the grabbers.

b4k9zp

Hmm. The NRA is totally opposed to unconstitutional gun control laws, according to their mission statement. So is at least its Texas state affiliate, the Texas State Rifle Association. They have been ever since the early 1990s.

Sianmink

Already dead in committee.

also for a standard mini-fisking,

“Assault weapons are the gold standard for mass murder. They are weapons of war, designed for war and have no place on our streets or in civilian hands,” said Smith at a press conference Thursday.

1: Not a single military issues semi-automatic intermediate-caliber carbines to troops.
2: Police and federal law enforcement are civilians, and certainly aren’t fighting wars, per the US Constitution. I assume there will be no carve-outs for them? (yeah right)

milesfortis

Standard Operational BS.
They had to come up with something to counteract the OC bill that was introduced previously.
Smoke Filled Room/Behind Closed Door strategy is to see if the Florida Rs will fall for the ‘bargaining’ chip ruse’ and kill the OC bill in trade for this one dying too.

Cavallo

Snowball’s chance in hell, really. The leftists would have more luck in CA or NY.

Richard

It’s unlikely that anyone in the us has been killed by a bayonet attached to the end of a rifle since the civil war. Bayonets scare them.

Shawn Primus

Bayonets don’t kill people, lugs do.

b4k9zp

Ignoring the wars against the various tribes of native Americans from 1865 through 1900, the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion, Haiti in 1915, the Mexican incursion in 1916, the entry of the US into WW One in 1917, the quasi war with the Russian bolsheviks in 1919-1921, Nicaragua in 1923-1925, the bonus army march in 1933-1934, World War Two Korea, Vietnam, etc., etc., etc.

mate556

Have you ever really looked at a bayonet lug? wooo. Scary as hell.

b4k9zp

Yeah. Some people can’t handle “cold steel”.

USMC 8th and I

Pissing in the wind!!

mate556

It is almost like they didn’t learn that going after guns pushes those that would otherwise vote dems to the GOP or independent.

If they were to drop this they would gain a lot of votes. Seems foolish to keep doing so.

Guest

Haven’t learned it since at least 1994 and probably before that.

mate556

Bill, figured it out. He is supposedly revered in the left and yet no one has listened to him on the subject.

b4k9zp

Bill and HIllary are one and the same on gun control. They both want it, and they both are willing to do anything do get it.

Walter Mondale (who ran against Reagan in 1984) said on April 20, 1994: “Gun bans don’t disarm criminals; gun bans attract criminals.” At that time, he showed a little common sense, but he went back to the liberal mantra that we only need one more gun control law to achieve utopia.

mate556

Yea but Bill is smart enough to not put it in the forefront of his national plans. He knows that they lose on it every time and has stated so. He knows that the people that they need to vote for them, like myself, will no longer do so because of it. He can be reasoned with, Hilary and those like her cannot.

b4k9zp

He is still a dyed in the wool, yellow dog democrat, and therefore a congenital liar.

b4k9zp

He went along with the 1994 assault weapon ban, and signed it into law, instead of vetoing it–and the Democrats didn’t have enough members in either house to get a total of a two thirds majority in each house, respectively, to override any presidential veto.

b4k9zp

Was Bill very reasonable about the Waco fiasco. If he were he would have fired Janet Reno and had her prosecuted for the murder by arson/asphyxiation of the 76 branch davidians who died on April 19,1993, since the evidence clearly shows that the fires that ravaged the compound were ignited by the CS tear gas grenades thrown into the compound by the FBI/ATF personnel there.

mate556

Was anybody reasonable in that fiasco? Probably not. And from what I have read, fires erupted simultaneously in several different parts of the compound that can’t be attributed to the CS canisters. Also, I doubt that the FBI/ATF team tossed in the accelerant that made it spread quickly with whomever started it. Could the result have come from over eager agents? Sure. Could, perhaps, delusion cult followers act like delusional cult followers and did it themselves? Yup.

Also, not sure how this pertains to Bill being smart enough not to blatantly go after guns. This was a very specific instance involving several agencies and cult people. Not really analogous for gun control.

b4k9zp

Infrared video tapes of the compound at the time the fires started did show that fires were started in several areas of the compound, all of them preceded by a very bright glow where the CS grenades were ignited. The ATF/FBI threw those canisters into the compound from many different points. Then they claimed that the Branch Davidians themselves set the fire. That’s impossible, since all but the six men who escaped (by being near unobstructed exits) were rendered unconscious by the FBI/ATF’s use of more than enough CS tear gas and its methylene chloride carrier liquid than was needed to render a soldier protected by a Class IV MOPP (chemical protective) suit unconscious within seconds.

You don’t remember that the only reason for that idiotic occurrence was the ATF’s attempt to arrest David Koresh for the ALLEGED conversion of a semiautomaticc rifle to fully-automatic and the ALLEGED possession of fully-automatic weapons without paying the unconstitutionally required and highly racist “transfer tax” on each “destructive device” (fully automatic weapons, in this case). ?

IOW this case was strictly and ONLY about the unconstitutional and racist policy of gun control. Nothing else.

You are saying that because the leader (Koresh) had some really weird religious ideas, he and the 47 other adults and 28 children in the compound who were, IMO, murdered by the ATF and FBI, were not entitled to due process of law (arrest, indictment, trial and conviction of a CAPITAL offense, with a death ;penalty justly applied, before he and

those followers were in effect executed by government forces?

The only “accelerant” present was the methylene chloride, a combustible, chlorinated solvent that is carcinogenic, and vaporizes quickly enough to spread throughout the compound within a few seconds. That methylene chloride was introduced by the ATF/FBI and ARMY personnel from nearby Fort Hood, Texas (in violation of the then in force Posse Comitatus act which prohibits the use of the US military on US soil against civilians in enforcing civilian law).

Again, the “delusion cult followers were all rendered unconscious by the tear gas attack (or at least one would hope they were) before they were burned or asphyxiated to death when the fire swept the compound. There is also plenty of evidence that the FBI/ATF DELIBERATELY made extra holes in the outside walls of the compound to ensure that the fires that they started would spread rapidly.

I, for one, would like to thank these brave simpletons for promoting legislation that will continue to shrink and marginalize the Democrat Party for decades to come. The Pulse shooter passed numerous state and federal background checks, including multiple, personalized interviews with the FBI, and he was still able to carry out a Jihadist terror attack, but you will note that he chose a place where weak people who are voluntarily disarmed congregated. His choice of tools for his mass killing is immaterial.

Now, these same weaklings are begging the government to provide them with another illusion of safety by using the overwhelming violence of The State to terrorize and disarm their fellow citizens; because they have chosen to be helpless, they want everyone else to be helpless as well.

b4k9zp

The Democratic governor of Louisiana and Democratic Mayor of New Orleans sent National Guard troops into the flooded areas of New Orleans after Katrina struck that city to invade people’s homes without warrants and confiscate any firearms they found there–depriving those who could not leave the city before Katrina hit any kind of protection from the hoodlums who were congregated around the Superdome and went out to rob houses and terrorize the inhabitants who had been forced to remain in the city.

Flyingfish42

Hoodlums that robbed houses? Oh you mean the New Orleans police department. There were a whole ring of them at it during the disaster.

b4k9zp

Them too. There were many gang bangers who remained in the Superdome and went around “boosting” unoccupied houses, IN ADDITION to the criminal abuse of the National Guard by the Lousiana governor and Mayor of New Orleans.

b4k9zp

No, I’m talking about the gangs of thugs staying at the Superdome during and after Katrina who went out into neighborhoods and robbed the houses while the owners were away.

White Bear

Come and try to take them if you dare.
By the way, all of this gun control crap really went well for Hillary and the dems in the election, didn’t it? By all means, keep pushing it. We need more liberals removed from office.

Sig_Sauer

This is their mantra, they will never give up trying to take our guns, even after they have been kicked out of office!

White Bear

If they ever actually try, they had better have their affairs in order.

These Dems deserve no respect! They want to turn our traditional Florida into another Yankee multi-cult cesspool.

Disarmed in CA

About time to ‘peanut butter sandwich’ the USA.
Break off the crusts on the right and left and enjoy the rest.

Guest

Dion’t forget to trim off the Mexican border as well.

Disarmed in CA

California — Californication — Contagion — Confiscation — Collapse

IamThe Ghost

Forgot Rebellion!

smartacus

haha! anything anti-gun is DEAD now after the Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooting.
Everybody now sees once and for all, the problem is not regular citizens with guns…
the problem is regular citizens without enough guns.

b4k9zp

again, we HOPE that that’s the case, and some degree of sanity is returning to legislators who can see the futility of banning guns, which, as 1984 Democratic party presidential candidate Walter Mondale said in 1994, only “attracts criminals”, for, as he said, “gun bans don’t disarm criminals.”

smartacus

great point!
Even Mondull of all people has said “gun bans don’t disarm criminals”

Angie Crowell

THANKS AND A BIG SHOUT TO THE STUPIDITY OF THE SUICIDAL DEMOCRATS! Why dont you just take a Flight like the innocents Killed at ORLANDO AIRPORT…Try it, Try to Take Our Guns! Disarm the Criminals and help us get Terrorists out of the USA you sick _s!!!!!!!!

Killermed78

Seems a little too covenant to suddenly have a shooter in an airport!

b4k9zp

One always wonders about the timing of things like the mass killing at the Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen TX in 1991, the alleged Sandy Hook shootings, the San Bernardino shootings, the Pulse night club shootings, etcetera–they always seem to come when some liberal democrats want to make headlines by trying to ban guns.

Guest

Is this a recent story, or is it some rehash of an old story? Can’t tell anymore. SSDD.

Killermed78

Its recent, the shooting was friday i think.

Guest

Don’t forget those deadly thumb hole stocks and those evil threads on the end of the barrel thingy.

Pepperidge Farm remembers the great Bayonet massacre of 1858. 600 million people were killed when a unicorn with a bayonet went crazey. People were so outraged all the remaining unicorns were hunted down and killed. Dark days…

Sig_Sauer

Thank you so much, I always wondered what happen to all the unicorns! If only the Democrats had sponsored legislation protecting the unicorns they could have been saved. Now, The Children have no unicorns and it’s the Democrats fault.

Sig_Sauer

Why is it always a Democrat that wants to curtail our Second Amendment Rights? By they way, the Florida Airport shooter used a handgun!

Michael T.

They need to ban the rifles before they can move onto the handguns.

Sig_Sauer

With this President and this Congress it’s not going to happen.

b4k9zp

We hope–if Donald Trump remains true to his promises that he made in the campaign.

b4k9zp

Their objective, as they have repeatedly stated, loudly, and quite often, is to ban ALL guns of any kind whatever. And like the “cigarette nazis” who started with banning smoking on airliners, then moved on to other areas, to the point now in some states (California) it’s illegal even to smoke in your own home or back yard. The late Pete Shields, founder of the organization then known as Handgun Control, Inc., wanted to ban the ownership and possession of all handguns, but he knew that he would have to do it gradually, one kind of weapon at a time. . (And George Mason of Virginia forecast that very process in a speech at the Virginia convention for ratifying the Constitution on June 14, 1788, when he stated: “An instance within the memory of some of this house, — will shew us how our militia may be destroyed. Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised by an artful man, [Sir William Keith] who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually, y totally difusing [sic] and neglecting the militia.”)

Amazing how our founding fathers were able to forecast the actions of the anti-gun fanatics so accurately in the late 1780s and early 1790s.

IamThe Ghost

16 Pages of shit, they know it too but want compromise and want 8 pages of shit as the final result. Fuck them and the Democrat donkey they rode in on!

Boyd Timothy Babcock

Those gay cocks have killed more people then my AR

Killermed78

I’m just trying to figure out if glass tubes filled with gasoline was used in a mass killing, would gasoline be proposed to be banned?

b4k9zp

It hasn’t been yet, even though the killer at the “Happy Land” illegal night club in New York City in 1991 used gasoline or lighter fluid and matches to set a fire in the club which killed 87 people, because a girlfriend had rejected him or something. (Google “Happy Land night club arson murders”)

Killermed78

Holy crap! And no ban on matches, lighter fluid, or gasoline. Hell, he could habe use Bacardi 151 and no one would be the wiser!

b4k9zp

LOLOL! Good point!

b4k9zp

LOL! Correct!

Brian John

It will never pas at this point in time , but with the influx of people from the Northeast and foreigners into the Gunshine state it wouldn’t surprise me if it passed some time in the future …

b4k9zp

Unless the people of Florida, now, pass laws that make violating the right to keep and bear arms a capital offense, punishable only by death.

Thubitsy

I wish I had the money to afford an assault weapon and the money that it would cost for all the permits, licenses and paperwork that you would have to file with the government to own one, plus the time for each time that they would want to come by and check to be sure you still have it. I can’t even afford a semiautomatic, much less an assault rifle which anyone with any brain cells would know is a fully automatic weapon not semiautomatic, so these people that keep beating a dead horse need to go to classes so they at least have an idea of what they are talking about instead of making statements or trying to pass legislation that makes them look and sound more ignorant than they already are.

Sig_Sauer

I was at my local gun store on Friday and they had full-auto rifles for sale. They ran between 20,000 and 35,000 dollars.

Sig_Sauer

I wounder if they are receiving money from Nanny Bloomberg?

b4k9zp

Of course, along with money from George Soros and the liberal Hollywood elite (who all have armed bodyguards and live in gated compounds).

b4k9zp

Most semi-auto clones of military weapons like the M16 and AK47 sold in the US before the unconstitutional 1994 Assault Weapon ban came with bayonet lugs on them, just like the military weapons. But as anyone who has ever even looked at a rifle that is equipped with a bayonet can clearly see, all it does is make that rifle into an expensive, not very well balanced, short spear, which is only useful for stabbing people at close range.

Not many mass killings in the US have involved the use of any kind of long knives like bayonets or swords since the last of the American Indian attacks on isolated white settlers in the late 1800s.

Sur Komm

if it passes, Floridians can always move like we are told all the time here in CA……….LOLLL

Flyingfish42

Why can’t our crazies shoot assholes like this instead of innocents that have done no harm to anyone?

Dannyboy

If passed, this “law” would be contrary to the U.S. Constitution, therefore null and void. All those that wish to disarm this Law abiding citizen, be advised…BIG mistake, I will not comply.